View allAll Photos Tagged sideyard
Oranjello looks outside through the alternate viewing port, which has been their sole viewing port since I put a piece of wood in front of their main few spot to punish them for breaking the window. I'll take it out before too long.
I deliberately cropped this photo at the bottom of the shadow of the paint peeling, because I thought it was pretty amazing that paint could make such an interesting shadow.
I coulda sworn I put a creepy face in one of these, but I can't find it...
Lemonjello the cat, Oranjello the cat, broken window, paint shadow, peeling paint.
side yard, Clint and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
June 19, 2010.
... Read my blog at ClintJCL.wordpress.com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL.wordpress.com
BACKSTORY: We staged some photos to re-create The Great Cat Escape Of 2010. Lemonjello, the inferior cat, is superior in a select few ways: And one of those is warning Clint that something is up. When Oranjello was trapped in the crawlspace, Lemonjello literally meowed and led Clint, 5 feet at a time, to the door of the crawlspace.
This othermorning, he meowed with similar alarm and tone -- a meow that is even worse than his normal annoying whiny meows. He led me to the living room, where I immediately felt the heat coming in from the missing pane. It fell 4 feet, but did not break (SLACK!). Being a cat-related endeavor, it fell to Carolyn to deal with the consequences. It was all of $3 to fix.
Yes, this window is in terrible condition, as is the sill. It looked especially worse when we put new siding on the house (the rest of our house had looked like that). I don't really see a point in upkeeping them (Repair? Yes. Upkeep? No.) since they really need to be replaced with 2-pane energy efficient windows anyway. It could definitely use a fresh coat of paint. In the interim, we simply put pillows over the hole. This kept the cats in and the heat out. Fortunately, they never go too far when they get out... But right before fixing it, we decided to take some pictures of the unique situation!
I guess this is why people paint fences? 10 years ago, this fence was intact, but not healthy looking. Always a bit green. Nowadays, all you gotta do is miss a piece of kudzu with your hatchet, and you take out a foot section of the fence. The wood is so rotted out and rained on that it's brittle and almost hollow.
It's too late to save this fence. I'm gonna let it rot away. The neighbor's half of the fence isn't in good condition either. One day we may both lose some our privacy. But it won't be ME buying a new fence, if it's anybody, it'll be my neighbor. I will not care if they see my yard. In fact, I wonder if keeping my yard intentionally messy would accelerate the progress of them buying a new fence. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, this existing fence has to finish rotting. Meanwhile, this entire concrete patio could landslide down the back of the hill someday, as half of the concrete patio is on my neighbor's already-condemned-once yard. So who knows what will ultimately happen with this part of the yard.
I am the best neighbor ever.
ALSO CHECK OUT THE BRICKS! Kudzu and ivy, man. Ignore them for a few years and they will literally crawl up stairs, find that tiny patch of dirt bricked up in front of the fence, infiltrate it, then grow so fast and so much as to BURST A BRICK WALL and separate almost every brick from each other. Yes, this wall was intact 10 years ago. At least I now have a source of bricks, which have come in handy on multiple occasions in the last 6 months -- much more so than having a side garden ever would have.
barbecue, bricks, bucket, house maintenance, kudzu, rotting fence, sheds, solar lights, tools.
side yard, Clint and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
June 14, 2011.
... Read my blog at ClintJCL.wordpress.com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL.wordpress.com
BACKSTORY: Random pics taken during our 2011 house maintenance. Our most taxing house-related year since the completion of our addition.
The third annual sideshow extravaganza Side Yards at Yards Park in Washington DC on the Capitol Riverfront featuring performers from Circus of Wonders!
A short video of a few performances:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3JdPnwqx04
Side Yards 2016
Washington DC
November 2016
iPhone SE
Another notebook to fill with choreography...
Have thoughts of cutting some of Rachel's "4 Or 5 Trees" into the beginning and end of this song and cutting some of the beginning.
A common theme in the way we live is "strength in weakness": Finding a flaw and realizing that it grants you extra points in unexpected way.
For example, our foundation is sagging, so our kitchen is slanted. The one time our laundry flooded, instead of a basement full of water, it all ran out the back door due to the floor slant. A few towels later and we had no homeowners insurance claim like when the same thing happened at my parents' house.
ANYWAY...
The step in our patio is decaying, and the decay left a nice space for a solar light. This is a perilous, dark step at night, as it falls in the shadows cast by the sheds, well, and house, making it impossible to navigate without holding onto the guard rail - which is itself barely held in by the decaying concrete of our mega-patio. So while the linear/conformist/normal way of thinking about something like this would be, "Hole. Bad. Fill it up so everything is flush and normalized", ***I*** would prefer having a hole that holds a light so I don't fall, than having a perfect step that is pleasing to the eye. Strength in weakness. QED.
concrete step, patio, solar light.
strength in weakness.
side yard, Clint and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
April 4, 2012.
... Read my blog at ClintJCL.wordpress.com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL.wordpress.com
Digital for sale or license:
Title: Somewhere between Melanic and Indigo
Info: Caught in time between Malanic and Indigo, somewhere between a summer field and a crystal ice world, amid structure and undefined limitless boundaries, between ocher stone summer and absolute zero slow moving space
Date: 12-7-17
Media: Photography
Three *major* tree cuts ($500) done, after Farmers and Progressive/Homesite told us trees can't touch our roof. After we did this work, they changed their tune to "trees can't be OVER the roof". I don't think that should be legal to tell the customer they have to make certain specific changes, then turn around and say those exact specific changes were no good. FUCK PROGRESSIVE. FUCK HOMESITE. FUCK FARMERS. DO NOT USE THEM.
This is also a good "after" pic of the now-painted main room window sill. The gutter has not yet been repaired in this picture.
Note the condition of the shingles. Progressive insurance (Homesite insurance) dropped our insurance giving us a list of reasons. We fixed the items on that list. They then dropped us a 2nd time for new reasons not included in the first list, including "curling shingles" on my roof. The shingles certainly aren't perfect, but do these look like something that's going to fly off my roof and cost an insurance company a lotof money? Of course, we survived Hurricane Irene AND the post-Irene flood storms JUST FINE ... With zero water in our house. Progressive did not even cite our roof the first time they dropped us. Quite simply, Progressive Insurance/Homesite insurance are ASSHOLES. The roof sure as hell does not need to be re-done if it is functioning just fine. Plus, I just patched it with roof cement to strengthen it up even more! Be smart. Stay away from Progressive. Their low prices aren't worth it. The State Corporation Commission has been notified, but since Virginia is a Republican state, our regulatory agencies barely have any teeth.
Also since then, additional gutter guards have been deployed, and they are uniformly and 100% covering the front gutters at least. Had to cut some into custom-sized pieces to get full coverage.
In case you're wondering how a gutter gets damaged: www.flickr.com/photos/clintjcl/4481727978/ ... Yes, it's all you people who keep wishing for snows' fault. Also, here's a picture of how bent up our front-right gutter was: www.flickr.com/photos/clintjcl/3596132314/
Homesite insurance, Progressive insurance, gutter, gutter guards, house maintenance, tree, tree cuts, tree removal, window.
Homesite insurance sucks. Homesite sucks. Progressive insurance sucks. Progressive sucks. after painting.
side yard, Clint and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
June 14, 2011.
... Read my blog at ClintJCL.wordpress.com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL.wordpress.com
BACKSTORY: So our homeowners insurance (Farmers) canceled our policy due to having peeling paint on our window sills, and tree branches touching our roof (among other things). So we switched to Progressive and they dropped us for the same reasons. So we renewed our Progressive policy, had $600 of tree work done, and rectified most of the list they gave us. Progressive dropped us a 2nd time for new reasons, including changing the tree requirements from "no branches touching your roof" to "no branches over your roof at all", so even after following their specific advice regarding the trees, they still canceled our policy again. It's simply not possible to satisfy Progressive when they give different reasons the second time around. Most of the reasons used by Progressive to drop us the 2nd time were never given the 1st time, even though those conditions were present then as well! PROGRESSIVE SUCKS AND IS NOT WORTH IT. INCONSISTENT! And then they try to bill you after you cancel them! Anyway, we paid The Care Of Trees $600 -- the cheapest of the 15+ companies I contacted -- to do 3 major cuts ($500) and remove the pine tree behind our addition ($100). I also bought a $100 pole saw (basically chainsaw on the end of a 10 foot pole) to handle the smaller trees (i.e. the cases where it's possible to do it yourself).
Very troublesome, though, is this hole in the concrete. This is where most of the water drains and does its wear-and-tear. How the hell do you patch something like this? You can stick your whole head in the hole!
One thing not mentioned by the insurance companies was these wobbly wooden steps. The concrete had eroded away around the nails that held these to the wall. One of the vertical support boards was rotting away. Things didn't quite line up. They were getting downright dangerous, rocking with each step. I feared they would completely collapse! To me, this is the one valid thing that truly had to be fixed -- and it wasn't even on the insurance companies' lists!
So I replaced the rotting board with another board from my attic, which I had found somewhere years ago. It was rotting, too, but I flipped it so the rotting side was on top. I left the extra part up there as sacrificial material and/or something to hang something on. For less than the cost of a singleboard, we used a TON of wood filler (which you can see--the yellow stuff on the unpainted brown wood) on all the rotting parts of the wood. Nailage was doubled on most of the boards. I bought concrete nails at Home Depot (THEY ARE AWESOME) and re-nailed the vertical support boards to the concrete well. I used a caulking gun full of Liquid Nails behind the vertical support boards, as an additional kludgey hold should the nails get loose later. Then we painted it all. The stairs have no wobble and are like new! Only one board doesn't look so hot -- the top-most board has split horizontally into 2 separate boards, as this is where the water trickles down during storms -- probably due to me deliberately changing the water flow to go down these steps many years ago; see recent flooding video at www.flickr.com/photos/clintjcl/6166790798/ ... But since each sub-board is properly nailed, it doesn't matter that it split. It's just like using 2 smaller pieces of wood. I was so positive we'd have to replace these stairs 5-10 years ago! Now I think they very well may last 'til 2020! We'll see!
cinder blocks, concrete, concrete hole, concrete wall, house maintenance, stairs.
after painting.
side yard, Clint and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
June 14, 2011.
... Read my blog at ClintJCL.wordpress.com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL.wordpress.com
BACKSTORY: While dealing with Farmers insurance & Progressive/Homesite insurance's dropping our policy for us having peeling window sill paint (among other things), we had to do a bunch of house repairs. We dealt with these stairs while doing the other repairs. This is the part of the project where I hammered Carolyn'sfingernail, turning it black for about 4 months. BTW -- kudzu can climb these stairs in less than a week.
Before we started using stripping compound (ultimately spending >$50 on tons of it), we stripped using only elbow grease. This was after we spent maybe 2-3 hours of 2 people scraping.
After 4-6 hours of 2 people scraping.
scraping.
house maintenance, living room window, peeling paint.
side yard, Clint and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
May 27, 2011.
... Read my blog at ClintJCL.wordpress.com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL.wordpress.com
BACKSTORY: So our homeowners insurance (Farmers) got dropped due to having peeling paint on our window sills (among other things). Weak. It was a LOT of work AND money for us to repaint all our sills. Wood windows SUCK!! Modern vinyl windows are MAINTANENCE-FREE!! Wood windows... You gotta re-glaze thepanes when they fall out, and then the wood itself is always going to slowly rot away. We already had our cats knock a pane out, so we already had glazing compound for pane repairs. This came in handy when we painted our various window sills, as some also needed glazing compound.
So the largest window in our house -- actually 3 windows -- was a major pain, and one of the few single-pane windows in the house. It would leak heat/cold in the summer/winter, and looked really bad compared to the new siding we had installed 6 or so years ago. So we decided to go ahead and replace just this window (actually 3 separate windows). Man was it expensive! $2,350! Thompson Creek had the best pitch and data, whereas Home Depot required $30 up front for an appointment they never showed up for and a list of 4 phone numbers to escalate (all 4 failed). So we had Thompson Creek do it of course! They did it, said they did it wrong, made us wait a month while making a new window (pro: they are all custom-made just for you; con: they are all custom-made, so a screw-up requires waiting for a new one to be made), then installed the new window, and finally everything was good and we were satisfied.
It was just kind of a pain because it cost so much money and had our living room in disarray for so many months, and the whole insurance basis for the situation was pretty bullshitty in the first place. We're not going to make a property damage claim due to moisture that occurs because our paint was peeling! Ridiculous...
Rendering. Both west and eastbound bridges completed. Standing on Abbey Avenue, looking south toward Tremont and the new "SIdeyard" Park and parking area.
I took 2 videos that are essentially the same thing in different order, one without narration, one with. They're both one of a kind in terms of weather so I was unable to choose one for deletion.
Incidentally, with our old windows it wasn't possible to see the creek from this window, because you couldn't open them and stick your head out of them. Plus we'd blocked them off so well that longtime guests were unaware we even had a window there. It's neat being able to see the creek out of a new window!
draining, flooding.
creek, drain, drainage, flood, kudzu, patio, steps, trees, water.
side yard, yard, Clint and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
September 8, 2011.
... Read my blog at ClintJCL.wordpress.com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL.wordpress.com
BACKSTORY: Hurricane Irene was a hurri-lame. But the storm AFTER it? That was a doozy. Not nearly as much wind, but way, way, way more water. Fortunately our house has been around awhile, so previous landowners already shaped the property in such a way that it's almost impossible to flood our house. The crookedness of the foundation alone would mean that any flooding would go out our back kitchen door instead of standing in the house. (Except for the fact that the door is currently painted shut...grrr.) Sometimes weakness is a strength.
Framed by a statue and an oak tree. Now the Montalvo Art Center, and originally Villa Montalvo, this Mediterranean-style villa in Saratoga belonged to James Duval Phelan. He loved inviting artists over to stay and work here. Montalvo now has a residency program.. One day, I would love to do a Residency here and sketch every little nook and cranny of this fascinating place!
All new side yard concrete with driveway extension. - Vacaville, CA
A. Townsend Concrete, a concrete contractor serving: Vacaville, Fairfield, Suisun City, Winters, Dixon, Davis, Woodland, Rio Vista, West Sacramento, Esparto, and Solano & Yolo county California.
We painted these stairs last year when we were painting our windows because our insurance dropped us. Only a year later, and the f'ing paint is already peeling!!
This is the $~40/G "10 year guarantee" Behr paint Home Depot pushed on everyone in the summer of 2010. (Behr Ultra base 5854 PP Ultra Ext Semi-gloss / B 1 87 / C 0 216 / T 0 80 / 464011146364.)
And yes, in the background, that is a patio-furniture-umbrella-holder with a solar light in it. We actually bought another patio-furniture-umbrella-holder at a yardsale so we can get use of our patio-furniture-umbrella again :)
patio, peeling paint, solar light, stairs.
side yard, Clint and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
April 4, 2012.
... Read my blog at ClintJCL.wordpress.com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL.wordpress.com
Found this tonight. Did me in for quite a while till I gave in and just let Kelsey sit there and keep me company.
A quick sequence of shots taken from the side yard, the kitchen and the back yard.
This Moon shot was taken from the side yard under a clear, starry sky.
It shows the Moon in it's Waning Crescent phase @ 29% of Full.
A papaya tree in a sideyard of a house in Phan Thiet. I love the shape the branches and leaves make.